The present invention relates to textile pigment printing, and in particular to the production of a printed textile fabric wherein the printed areas are of a predetermined desired color and are characterized by being substantially opaque and thus unaffected by the color of the underlying yarns. This invention is related to and is an improvement over the invention described in the above-referenced commonly owned earlier applications.
These earlier applications disclose a unique new type of textile printing process and product in which the printed areas on the textile fabric are substantially opaque and are thus unaffected by the color of the underlying yarns. The aqueous opaque printing process and product of these earlier applications overcomes a number of significant limitations and disadvantages of conventional pigment printing techniques and enables the production of a wide variety of patterns and colors not obtainable by the pigment printing techniques heretofore known. The printing paste which is used in the opaque printing process, unlike the aqueous printing pastes used in conventional screen printing operations, has opacity and can be applied over either dark or light background fabrics without being affected by the color of the underlying yarns. The resulting printed pattern areas on the fabric comprise an opaque coating which covers the exposed surfaces of the yarns which form the fabric. This coating comprises an opacifying pigment providing opacity in the coating and a cured water insoluble polymer binder which is affixed to the yarns and bonds the opacifying pigment to the yarns. The opaque coating which forms the printed pattern areas is characterized by individually coating each of the yarns in the printed area such that the interengaged yarn structure of the fabric is not obliterated, but remains visible. More specifically, the opaque coating is further characterized by individually encapsulating and coating the exposed fibers at the surface of the yarn such that the individual surface fibers of the yarn also are not obliterated and remain visible.
The opaque coating which forms the printed pattern areas may be of any desired color. For relatively light colors, such as white, the opacifying pigment itself may be utilized for providing the desired colors. The above-referenced earlier applications further disclose that other colors may be produced by including colored pigments in the printing paste in addition to the opacifying pigment.